The freight doors on the overhang side, are just not right, to me. The trim is too busy, too may small crossovers, and only one X-'over' on one side (?), and as it turns out, too thick, about .02" thick, too close to a 2-by material. Actually, the door is a bit tall, but acceptable, it's the trim that's off. Also, the holes for the door handle are only a scale 30" from the floor, it should really be more about 45", or 1/2". So I get to change that too.

So I made my own trim out of 1x4, 1x6, and some 1x12 for the kickboard (2 pieces side by side for 24" width). There are two more doors just like it on the other side, but I think I will change them altogether. There is a steel door, or two, and it is cut from cardboard, or chipboard, nice and crisp, but how to make cardboard look like steel without the grain showing. I may re-do those in styrene.

Good call. Most laser kits seem to have some compromises, often components that are too thick. Using stripwood also avoids the problem of the wood grain going across boards instead of lengthwise. Those sorts of things bother me.

Still, a nice looking kit and an even better model after your modifications.

Mike

_______________________________________________________________________________________________Nobody living can ever stop me, as I go walking that freedom highway -- Woody Guthrie

I'm checking back in again Tony. Good call on the doors. No offence to the kit manufacturers, but I like to make my own doors. Lazer cut components made for kits seem to utilize a sheet of wood to the best advantage, hence some of the grain will run the wrong way. That is one of the reasons why I don't buy them, and would either purchase a board on board kit or make my own models using stripwood. Just my preference. Nice job so far.

Thank you Bob. I tend to look at these things in a 'scale' perspective, so they tend to jump out at me. I've shown this door to my wife a few times during the process, getting ideas on style, color; she's good at helping me choose between colors, or one idea over another, especially when I just can't seem to make up my mind.

Thanks Mike. Yep, that plywood wood grain bothers me a lot too. I get Rusty Stumps windows in RC Board as well, no grain, easy to paint and detail. In fact, I am using one of his overhead garage doors now to add to the side door, or end door, the one on the left side. Or is it the back side? Man, with 5 walls, who knows

Thanks Rich, always love to see you drop in. But I agree with you. The kit manufacturers have to make compromises, but they can do a better job, I think. The choice of materials is key in making a quality kit.

Not sure anyone noticed, I left one board sort of rotted away a little, it was the end of the stripwood piece I had, and looked just perfect.

I have an update on one, just one, door on the Sokol's build. The kit supplied some cardboard doors I think I am supposed to paint and add stuff to it, there wasn't really much in the way of explanation on this one, so I made my own, not liking the cardboard one anyway.

One thing to add, if you leave a door open, and not mentioned in the instructions, as ALL doors are closed, is to add some trim to the door openings. I almost forgot. The 2 bay doors, I only needed to add one side and a header, as just painting the opposite side is all that is needed just in case you can see around that far.

The door I added here I wanted to represent a roll top door that is no longer in use, so it is heavily rusted, has dirt and leaves blown up on the sill (simulated with a piece of styrene that was rusted), along with an empty oil bottle. The door I used was one from Rusty Stumps, and I honestly forgot I had this set, and it almost fit perfectly. I had to turn it sideways to fit right, and in doing so, had to scribe some gaps in the sections so it will roll up, if it wasn't rusted shut. I added plain styrene behind the center and lower sections, with clear styrene behind the rest, and coated everything with dull coat. A couple of old looking handles, and were done.

I have done something to the foundation, Mike, you should be able to rest easy tonight. It may not be completely done here, but it is a start

I poured, if you can call it that, a layer of .020" plaster mixed with some grey paint, a drop of black and A/I for a light grey, then came back with some pastels to color it. I also chipped some areas. The cracks I made by snapping the sections in half.

Also doing the door hangers better, the castings won't fit well on the model the way I would like. First I cut some .09" tubing for the wheels:

Thanks Mike. To do that, I laid out some 2 x 10's, the width isn't important, added the mixed plaster and used a razor blade to squeegee it in. While wet, I used the blade to create the breaks between sections, roughly guessed the size. Once dry I removed the plaster and broke some pieces for the cracks. It's surprisingly strong, even at only .02" thick. I did all this on some plate glass, it is flat and easy to remove everything. I did get the reference to the now vacant 'T'

Rich, thank you, no, I didn't. I've done quite a few little details like this, doing them differently every time, it seems like. There's no one right way to do it.